4/09/2005

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Authorities are looking for a man who posed as a highway patrol trooper and stopped a woman early Friday at a highway rest stop. The woman had pulled over at the Highway 385 rest area in western South Dakota to let her dog out, investigators said.

She told authorities that as she started to leave, a man pulled up in a car that resembled a highway patrol vehicle and told her he was working as a special officer and needed to see papers for her dog.

The woman said she sensed something wasn't right and tried to get away, but the man grabbed her. That's when her dog bit him, the woman said.

Fall River County Sheriff Jeff Tarrell said the woman was lucky to have had her dog along.

"At that time in the morning at a rest stop, who knows what his intentions are," said Tarrell. "Thank God for that dog."